Last time, in the “Obligatory ‘What is Homeopathy’ Post” I wrote about the idea of the Law of Similars (like cures like) and how homeopaths conduct provings in order to find out what symptoms a particular substance, when diluted and succussed, will cure. To briefly state it again, provings are conducted by giving the remedy being tested to healthy subjects and the symptoms that develop are carefully catalogued to get a picture of what the remedy is capable of curing. These provings are conducted on multiple subjects of all types so that as complete a picture of the remedy’s action can be determined (one of the most proven remedies in the Materia Medica is Sulphur which has 17,634 symptoms associated with it in the Synthesis repertory, for example).
This like cures like concept represents a stumbling block for some of the more skeptically minded among us. How is it possible that a medicine that will cause certain symptoms in healthy people will cure those same symptoms in the sick? This goes against all conventional understanding of how we respond to biologically active substances. Aspirin stops headaches because the chemical compounds inhibit an enzyme that causes inflammation, thereby bringing the inflammation down and decreasing the pain. And yet, healthy subjects taking normal doses of aspirin don’t experience headaches.
The answer may have something to do with the concept of hormesis. Hormesis is “a theoretical phenomenon of dose-response relationships in which something (as a heavy metal or ionizing radiation) that produces harmful biological effects at moderate to high doses may produce beneficial effects at low doses.” Many herbs may actually work via hormesis; curcumin, for instance, a chemical extract from turmeric that is used as an anti-inflammatory for things like injuries and joint conditions. However the mechanism of action is to cause a mild level of cellular stress which acts to mobilize a strong anti-inflammatory response in the cell.
Could there be a similar mechanism behind homeopathy? It could very well be. Homeopathic remedies act kind of like irritants in that they will cause symptoms when taken. If you take a dose of Ferum metallicum every day for a number of days, for example, you may start to get a proving symptom like a headache in one spot in the left temple. I know this is true because I did it myself in a semi-blinded setting (semi-blinded because, while I knew I was taking Ferrum, at the time I didn’t know the symptoms that Ferrum is capable of producing. I didn’t even equate the headache with the remedy at first, but once I put two and two together and looked up the symptoms of Ferrum, surprise, surprise - headache in one spot in the left temple). This was a perfect illustration of homeopathic remedies acting as irritants - they cause symptoms in healthy subjects.
But the magic happens when the symptoms caused by the remedy match the symptoms of the sick patient as precisely as possible. Then there’s a curative response. It’s like the body’s own healing system kicks into action to act against the invading disease pattern (the remedy), and in the process this healing system acts against the already-present symptoms of the patient’s disease. Just like the body’s anti-inflammatory system is stimulated by the invading curcumin particles in the above example, and which in turn works against inflammation in the joints, homeopathic remedies provide a “disease signal” that the body mobilizes a response against and ends up ameliorating the existing disease.
But in the case of the curcumin, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what is reacting to the physical substance. The immune system detects the stressor and releases anti-inflammatory molecules to counter it (this is undoubtedly an extremely simplified description of what’s going on here). But what about in the case with homeopathic remedies where, even if some amount of physical substance is present, it couldn’t possibly be enough to have a biological effect? What exactly detects the disease signal of the remedy? What is it detecting and what is being mobilized against it?
We are clearly dealing with a different animal here. Not only are we not dealing with a physical substance, the curative action of the remedies goes well beyond just the immune system - homeopathic remedies are well-documented as curing mental and emotional diseases as well as physical ones. In fact, in homeopathy the entire system of the human being (and animals and plants also) is treated as a whole, not artificially divided into human-designated parts.
This is where we come to one of the central ideas within the system of homeopathy: the Vital Force. The Vital Force is the theorized central organizing intelligence of the body, responsible for its functioning and healing. I’ll be delving into this concept next time around.